'Agents of SHIELD': Why Grant Ward needs to stay committed to HYDRA

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One of the biggest twists on “Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD” recently was the reveal that Agent Grand Ward is actually an embedded HYDRA agent. An even better twist will be if he ultimately remains that way.

Everything that initially seemed predictable on “Agents of SHIELD” turned out to be carefully plotted twists on genre TV tropes. That’s why it would be a huge mistake to have Ward end up predictably deciding that his allegiances should be to Coulson and Skye, who are good people and have his heart, instead of to John Garrett and HYDRA.

There have been a few moments in the past couple of episodes where it seemed like Ward was questioning his unfaltering allegiance to Garrett. Raina tried to prod him by pointing out what a good man Coulson is in “Providence,” and in “The Only Light in the Darkness” Ward legitimately seemed a bit torn by the fact he doesn’t consider his allegiance to Garrett a choice.

Ward is at his most interesting now that viewers know he’s not the man they thought he was for the show’s first 16 episodes. Now that Skye knows he is HYDRA as well, Tuesday’s (April 29) episode, “Nothing Personal,” is shaping up to be one of the most interesting SkyeWard episodes yet. That’s why it would feel a bit cheap for Ward to decide to come back to SHIELD by the end of this season.

Showrunners Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen have done a great job in Season 1 by making the audience think they were taking the story in one direction when it actually was headed somewhere else entirely. While it would be sad to have a villainous Ward storyline end with Brett Dalton leaving the show by being killed off or something along those lines, it would be much more interesting to see him become a main villain on “Agents of SHIELD” instead of returning to being a hero.

Fans are still having a hard time coming to terms with the fact Ward is HYDRA (and some even doubt it’s the case), but “Agents of SHIELD” is much more interesting with the knowledge that Coulson was so deceived by Ward. Here’s hoping Ward remains an antagonist and a surprise through the end of Season 1. Who knows, maybe he’ll end up becoming a supervillain before all of this is through.

“Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD” airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC. Only three episodes remain in Season 1.